The small-world illusion: Overestimating the frequency of in-person interactions with acquaintances

Abstract

People generate substantial informational benefits from their social networks, and acquaintanceships—“weak ties”—are an important component of these benefits. However, acquaintances typically do not have deep knowledge of one another’s schedules and do not plan their interactions ahead of time. The uncertain nature of interactions with acquaintances raises the possibility that people might not realize how often they actually occur. The present experiments find that people overestimate the frequency of interacting with acquaintances (Experiments 1a-2b). This occurs partly because of an availability bias whereby instances of crossing paths with acquaintances are more top-of-mind and readily available than ways in which acquaintances might “miss” each other (Experiments 3a-5). One consequence of this is that people overestimate opportunities for receiving help from acquaintances and thus miss out on such opportunities (Experiment 5). Acquaintances do not interact as frequently as they think, and this misperception can reduce the benefits of social networks.